June 12, 2024 – At the end of the 2019 “Lazar v. Ganim” trial, Judge Barry Stevens said the plaintiffs – Beth Lazar, Vanessa Liles, and Annette Goodridge (three Bridgeport voters) – were successful in identifying serious election-related crimes. The crimes had been uncovered through a 6-day canvass, organized by Bridgeport Generation Now Votes and PT Partners.  

What we learned during that canvass and the subsequent trial is that these election crimes are part of a system: A system that was built by and for white people in Bridgeport to hold onto consolidated political power, in the face of a rapidly diversifying city. It’s no secret that absentee ballot abuse has been an issue in Bridgeport for decades. The question is – who designed it, who trained people to do it, and who continues to benefit politically from it? 

From the beginning of this journey, which for us began in 2017 when Bridgeport Generation Now members took up research on “the problem with absentee ballots” in our local elections, this work was never about any one candidate. It has always been about exposing and ending the systemic corruption in Bridgeport, a system of election fraud, patronage, pay-to-play, abuse and exploitation that works to undermine democratic norms and uphold white supremacy. 

All you have to do is look at yesterday’s arrests to see that the very people who have most benefited from the corruption – Joe Ganim, Mario Testa, and the state Democratic Party – have regularly claimed innocence and ignorance. Yet, somebody recruited and taught Wanda Geter-Pataky on how to rig elections. Someone encouraged Alfredo Castillo to harvest ballots. And plenty of people in and around Ganim’s re-election campaigns “know better:” They know what the campaign was doing was wrong and encouraged it anyway. This doesn’t absolve Geter-Pataky or Castillo from being held accountable for their actions. But it does point to a larger, more insidious and racist system at play.

Sadly, Nilsa Heredia and Josephine Edmonds fall into the worst category. They are campaign workers, Heredia for Ganim’s 2019 re-election and Edmonds for Moore’s campaign, who were paid minimal wages. They represent dozens of seasonal campaign workers who are targeted because of their economic need and then trained to engage in illegal activity, often without their knowledge or understanding. They are the ultimate sacrificial lambs in the continued exploitation of low-income Black and brown people in our city.   

This is disgusting and should enrage us all. Voting is ultimately a demonstration of a community’s collective power. Black, Puerto Rican, and Latino voters have organized and fought for the recognition and rights of citizenship, in Bridgeport and beyond. So, it’s not a surprise that the system is set up to exploit and divide Bridgeport’s community, and hand political power to white men who don’t live here.  

Let’s not be fooled. The strategies used in Bridgeport to manipulate absentee ballots has defrauded and disenfranchised Bridgeport’s Black and brown voters. It works to silence the voices of voters who need government services the most, and places candidates in office who aren’t representative of our communities. It’s no wonder that Ganim doesn’t make any campaign promises related to education funding, economic justice, health equity, or more. In a system that’s rigged for him to win, he doesn’t have to. 

Again, the 2019 lawsuit was never about a candidate. Marilyn Moore was not a plaintiff in that case. It was a grassroots effort led by Bridgeport residents who recognized the losses our community was and still are experiencing as a result of voter manipulation. There are no winners, we are all disenfranchised. Yesterday’s arrests are a tipping point, and we’re hopeful our city is finally ready for change. 

To facilitate that change, here are 4 actions leaders both within Bridgeport and in the state must take to demonstrate their commitment to ending the racist corruption plaguing Bridgeport and to uphold our country’s democratic norms:

  1. Mayor Ganim, City Council President Aidee Nieves and others on the City Council must call for Alfredo Castillo to immediately resign from his Council seat.
  1. An investigation should immediately be opened into Alfredo Castillo’s residency, as his arrest warrant lists an address in Shelton as his “last known address.”
  1. Nancy DiNardo, Chair of the State Democratic Party, must call for Mario Testa, Wanda Geter-Pataky, and Alfredo Castillo to resign from their positions on Bridgeport’s Democratic Town Committee. She and the entire Democratic Party must make it clear that people who engage in election fraud and criminality in their name are not welcome in the party.
  1. In next year’s legislative session, state leaders must pass a bill that prohibits anyone from circulating more than 5 absentee ballot applications.